**Abstract**

China has a long history of grape cultivation and wine making, and it has grown to be one of the most important countries in terms of grape cultivation, wine production, and wine consumption. According to meteorological and geographical regionalization, China's wine production area has been divided into 11 regions, the majority of which are located in cold and mid-temperate regions in northern China, where vines must be buried in winter and unearthed in spring. In China, the main cultivated grape varieties are similar, with the red variety accounting for more than 80% of the total, while the white variety represents just 20%. Currently, Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely planted variety, but Marselan, another red variety, have recently shown good prospects. Wild grape species such as *Vitis amurensis*, *Vitis davidii*, and *Vitis quinquangularis* are widely planted in northern and southern China because of their good resistance to local climate. This chapter highlights some common wild grape varieties in China, as well as the wines made from them. Also, some winemaking pretreatment techniques are reported.

**Keywords:** wine, China regions, buried viticulture, wild species, pretreatment technics

### **1. Introduction**

China has an ancient history of beverage making. A fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit (hawthorn fruit and/or grape) absorbed into pottery jars from the early Neolithic village of Jiahu in China's Henan province indicate the beverage's earlier existence, dated back to 7000 B.C [1]. The viticulture and enology history in China could be traced back to the Han dynasty (138 B.C.). Zhang Qian was the first to introduce vines and winemaking techniques into China through the Silk Road. Since then, wine has been made in all of ancient China's dynasties [2], although it did not become popular until the Tang dynasty (618–907 A.D.). As a symbol of Chinese wine culture, many famous poetries were written and spread for thousands of years. During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 A.D.), the government instructed wine and other fruit beverages to be a replacement for cereal grain beverages. Moreover, an agricultural science literature known as 'Nong Sang Ji Yao' also recorded viticultural and winemaking practices in detail, which formed the most prosperous period of the wine industry in ancient China's history. The modern Chinese wine industry began at the end of the 19th Century when a high-ranking official brought more than 100 *Vitis vinifera* vines from Europe, and the first winery Changyu was established in Shandong province in 1892, which still holds the

**Figure 1.** *Summary of the history and development of China wine industry.*

leading position in Chinese wine today. With the birth of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the Chinese government became heavily involved in the country's wine industry, expanding vineyard areas, wineries, and wine production. The contemporary wine industry underwent recuperation and considerable development at this time, but it was not until the reform and opening-up policy in 1978 that wine output increased substantially [3]. After decades of rapid growth, total wine production decreased year by year beginning in 2013, but both import volume and total wine consumption increased, indicating that China's wine market is still expanding (**Figure 1**). As one of the biggest and dynamic international markets, wines from all over the world gathered, competed, traded, and merged, causing China's wine industry to progress and upgrade over and over again. Despite this, opportunities and challenges coexisted in such a market [2].
